The US-China Green Energy Council (UCGEC, http://ucgef.org) is pleased to announce the 2014 No. 2 Seminar “Clean Energy and Smart Grid: Challenges and Opportunities in US and China” to be held at 2pm to 7pm, August, 7th, 2014 in Palo Alto. It is FREE for registered attendee, but will charge $20 after August 1st and at the door.Register today at this link.

We are excited to present several distinguished keynote speakers from California and China, to share insights of renewable energy integration with smart grid development from US and China, and explore opportunities for future collaboration in R&D projects. Prof. Xiaoxin Zhou, Honorary President of China Electric Power Research Institute (CEPRI) and Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, will share his vision of future power grid integrated with clean energy, the status and prospects of smart grid development in China. Dr. Jeff Hamel, Executive Director of Power Delivery and Utilization from Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), USA, will deliver keynote speech at US side.

The Seminar has two panel sessions including top executives and leading professionals from Smart Grid Research Institute (SGRI) North America, SGCC and US smart grid technology & solution providers. They will cover two hot topics, “Big Data Challenges in Smart Grid” and “Monitoring & Control Challenges in Smart Grid”, ranging from policy, current practices, technologies and future perspectives.

Light food and replenishment will be provided. There will also be plenty of networking opportunities. Mark your calendar and RSVP today as seats are limited!

Note: CEPRI and SGRI are affiliated to State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), which is the largest state-owned electric utilities company in the world, ranking 7th on the 2013 Fortune Global 500.

The smart grid uses monitoring communication, control, and automation to improve the way electricity is generated, distributed, and consumed. This panel focuses on new monitoring and control technologies & solutions at transmission, distribution and customer sites that are developing and deploying in US and China.

Howard Industries is the United States largest manufacturer of transformers and other critical products for utility, wind, solar, commercial and industrial accounts worldwide. With over 400,000 square meters of manufacturing space, Howard Industries is the only full-line transformer manufacturer in the United States. The main distribution transformer plant is the largest in the world. We have the best material buying power in the industry and heavily invest in modern state of the art ISO 9001:2008 certified facilities and equipment. Howard Industries can provide the best value to our customers by providing high quality products built at competitive prices.

Since its incorporation in 1968, over the past four decades the company has grown to be the United States leading manufacturer of high efficiency distribution transformers, with over 9 million transformers in service worldwide. Our products include high efficiency distribution transformers, intelligent automatic voltage regulators, Smart transformers, medium power substation transformers, pad-mounted switch cabinets, junction enclosures, lighting fixtures and lamps.

Howard Industries Intelligent Voltage Regulators (VR) are tap changing autotransformers that are designed to automatically regulate distribution line voltages in the range of ± 10% in 32 steps of approximately 5/8% each to maintain a constant voltage and provided a solution to improve voltage profile for a distribution system, operational efficiency and peak load management. Howard Industries Voltage Regulator customers include leading utilities in the United States and abroad, with over 15,000 Voltage Regulators in service worldwide. We also manufacture Smart transformers which are a special distribution transformer with integral capabilities for measuring, analyzing and communicating various parameters to support smart-grid initiatives.

Please visit our booth 353 at The 6th China International Conference on Electricity Distribution (CICED 2014), September 23-25, 2014, Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center. For more information about the company, please visit www.HowardTransformers.com

Robert Larson is Co-founder and Managing Director of the Woodside Fund. Dr. Larson has enjoyed a challenging and fruitful career in the exceptionally broad exposure to the most recent developments in these technologies. Dr. Larson was co-founder, President, and CEO of Systems Control. In addition, he was President of the international Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). Dr. Larson has worked for IBM, Hughes Aircraft, and SRI International. He was also a Consulting Professor at Stanford University in the Engineering-Economic Systems Department for over 20 years.

He received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from Stanford University, and a B.S. degree from MIT, all in Electrical Engineering. He has written six textbooks and 140 technical papers on software and computer systems.

Robert Wu, Chairman and CEO of the US-China Green Energy Council

Robert Wu is Chairman and CEO of UCGEC; Co-Chairman and founding president of the Berkeley Chinese Alumni International Association, Co-Chairman and founding president of the Fudan University Business Education Foundation and a director of The 1990 Institute. Mr. Wu is a veteran of the Computer and Semiconductor Industry in both the U.S. and China. He received his BSEE with highest honors from University of California, Berkeley in 1953 and his MSEE from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1954.

He was a project manager in semiconductor development for the Transitron Semiconductor Corporation before returning to China in 1956. In China, Mr. Wu as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences had played a leading role in the early development of the Institute of Semiconductors, the Institute of Computing Technology, and the Institute of Microelectronics. He was the technical director in developing China's first transistor, the first transistorized mainframe and its first microcomputer with silicon IC. He is recognized as a founding member of China's computer and semiconductor industry.

Mr. Wu returned to US in 1978 and joined HP Labs. He facilitated the establishment of HP China, the first joint venture between the US and China. Early in 1982, he supported immediate VLSI implementation on RISC architecture and became the project manager of HP's first RISC microprocessor. In 1985, he made the initial proposal to utilize the vast amount of cost-effective manpower resources in China and India, and became the program manager of HP International Contract Programming. Mr. Wu co-founded Silicon Magic Corporation in 1994, where he served as the Director of Human Resources, Planning, and China Business Development until 1999.

Professor Xiaoxin Zhou, Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Honorary President of China Electric Power Research Institute (CEPRI).

Professor Zhou is an Expert in electric power system, elected Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) since 1993, and IEEE Fellow since 1995, serving currently as Honorary President of CEPRI, Director of Engineering and Materials Science Department of National Natural Science Foundation of China, and Member of the National 11th-Five-Year-Plan Expert Committee. He was Governing Board member of IEEE/PES and Chairman of IEEE Beijing Section.

He graduated from the Electrical Engineering Department at Tsinghua University in 1965 and in the same year joined China Electric Power Research Institute. His research interests are power system analysis and control, application of power electronic technology in power system. In 2008, he received the Nari Hingorani FACTS Award from IEEE Power & Energy Society.

Jeffrey F. Hamel, Executive Director of Power Delivery and Utilization, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), USA

Jeffrey Hamel is the Executive Director of the Power Delivery and Utilization Sector at EPRI. His current responsibilities include leading the Power Delivery and Utilization account team in developing, securing and growing broad collaboration across the transmission, distribution, energy utilization, and information and communication technologies research areas. In addition, Hamel is working to expand EPRI collaboration with the State of California and the State of New York. Prior to his current assignment at EPRI, Hamel was the Program Manager for EPRI’s Advanced Nuclear Technology Program, leading research activities focused on advanced nuclear plants and long-term nuclear sustainability and growth.

Prior to joining EPRI in 2007, Hamel worked at General Electric as the Manager of Specialty Projects, where he was responsible for managing and leading new growth for GE’s nuclear business. While at GE, Hamel also supported the commercial development of new nuclear power plant projects domestically and internationally.

Hamel holds a Master’s in business administration from Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California and received a Bachelor’s degree in marine transportation from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, along with a U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Marine License and U.S. Navy Reserve Commission.

Mr. Casente joined the Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI) legal team in 2004 after serving for 15 years as an attorney with San Francisco Bay Area corporations and law firms. During his career, Casente focused his attention on financings and acquisitions, licensing, compliance measures, and enhancement of intellectual property. Immediately prior to joining EPRI, Casente was Senior Legal Counsel/Senior Attorney, Law & Corporate Affairs for Placeware, Inc., Microsoft Corporation.

Casente received a Bachelor of Arts in government with high distinction from the University of Virginia. He earned his law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School and received a Master of Science in management (Sloan Fellow) from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is a member of the California State Bar and is affiliated with the Association of Corporate Counsel.

Dr Ruomei LI, former secretary general of Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering (CSEE) from 2009 to 2013. She received her B.E. from Technical University of Hefei, China, in 1982 and a M.E. from the China Electric Power Research Institute (CEPRI) in 1989, and a Ph.D. from the University of Bath, UK in 2000.

From 1982 to 1986, she worked in the Power Dispatch Center of the Electrical Power Company of Anhui province, China. She has been a research engineer on power system operation and planning at CEPRI from 1989 to 1994. She was a visitor in Dept of E.E. UMIST, UK, from 1994 to 1995. From 2000 to 2004, she worked as the chief engineer of S&T division of CEPRI, China. Since 2004, she has served in Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering (CSEE) as the executive deputy secretary general (2005~2009) and secretary general (2009~2013). She was also a member of CSEE council and CSEE executive council (2004~2013). Dr. Li is Cigre Administrative Council member (2005~2014) and Cigre Steering Committee member (2006~2014). She was former chair of Asia & Ocean Regional Council of CIGRE (2010~2012). She became member of CIRED Directing Committee since 2007. She is vice chair of WFEO Committee on Energy committee, and member of WFEO-UN Committee.

Xiaofeng is a Regional Marketing Director, Howard Industries Inc. She has over 25 years of experience in the areas of Smart Grid, Distribution Automation, Demand Response, Electricity Market and Renewable Energy. She has worked in various capacities with global leading companies, such as Director of Marketing and Admin, JA Solar USA; Sr. Project Manager at Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), Product Manager and China Marketing Manager at ABB Inc., Senior Engineer at Siemens and at Systems Control.

Previously she worked with the Chinese Electric Power Research Institute (CEPRI) in Beijing, where her application software won a National Scientific Technology Award. She has published widely and recently served as a panelist at several conferences, such as she was Smart Grid panelist & panel moderator for UCGEC 2010 conference in Suzhou and 2013 conference in Tianjin, and a panelist on “Market-Based Demand Response” at IEEE 2010 General Meeting. She holds a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and was a PhD Candidate at the Chinese Electric Power Research Institute (CEPRI).

Ms. Zhang is a Senior Member of IEEE. She is Vice President of the US-China Green Energy Council (UCGEC) and is co-chair on Smart Grid steering committee. She is very active in San Francisco Bay Area communities and has served various non-profit organizations, including Board Chairwoman (2013 to present) and President (2006 to 2008) of Silicon Valley Women (SVWA).

Dr. Jeffrey W. Chapman, CEO, EnDimensions LLC; UCGEC Partner

Dr. Chapman is CEO and co-founder of EnDimensions, LLC (a consulting firm providing expertise in energy policy, power system engineering and software design for the energy industry). Previous to that he was Senior Director of energy market products for APX, Inc (Formerly the Automated Power Exchange), handling energy scheduling, SCADA/EMS systems and energy billing and settlement. He was a manager of ABB, Inc, and directed the design, integration and commissioning of large-scale energy bidding and scheduling systems for the California Power Exchange during the launch of the California ISO, handling the scheduling and validation of nearly 80% of the total energy consumed in the state.

He received his MS and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and has authored and co-authored a number of technical articles and monographs.

Dr Chapman has been active in promoting and facilitating growth and integration of renewable energy resources, demand response and advanced metering in the United States and has exploring opportunities to work with peers in other countries to apply best-of-breed expertise and technology to reliably increase renewable energy production worldwide.

Dr. Lee has over 40 years of electric power industry experience. He received his S.B., S.M., E.E. and Ph.D. degrees from M.I.T. in Electrical Engineering, majoring in Power System Engineering. He worked for Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation in Boston, and Systems Control, Inc. in Palo Alto, California, and he was Vice President of Consulting for Energy Management Associates (EMA). After being an independent Consultant in utility planning and operation, he joined the US Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), where he managed and directed technical research programs for power system analysis, grid planning and operations. As Senior Technical Executive, he was considered one of the top Thought Leaders of EPRI. Dr. Lee actively participated in activities of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) in the Operating Committee and was a co-chair of the Reliability Fundamentals Working Group. For the last few years, he has been active in the research and the consulting of the Smart Electric Power Grid. For one year (2010-2011), he was an Executive Managing Consultant for IBM Global Business Services in China, with the Energy & Utilities Center of Competence. Stephen was a board member of The 1990 Institute and a board member and Smart Grid task force co-chairman of the US-China Green Energy Council. He is also an Honorary Vice-President (Overseas) of The Hong Kong Bio- and Eco- Energy Industry Association.

Dr. Guangyi Liu chief engineer of SGRI North America. He received his bachelor, master and Ph.D degrees from Harbin Institute of Technology and China Electric Power Research Institute in 1984, 1987 and 1990, respectively. His research interests include Energy Management System (EMS) and Distribution Management System (DMS), electricity market, smart grid, autonomic power system, active distribution network and application of big data in power system.

Xueping Jiang received his B.S and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1982 and 1985, respectively. From 1985 to 1988, he was a lecturer of Electrical Engineering at Fuzhou University. From 1988 to 1992, he worked with SYSUMS as a senior engineer. From 1992 to 1995, he pursued his PhD degree of Electrical Engineering at Colorado State University. In 1995 he joined Sun Microsystems to design Ultra SPARC CPU. After then he had took several senior technical positions and management positions at various high-tech IC companies in Silicon Valley. In 2012, he joined SGCC as a vice CTO in CEPRI of SGCC. He is now vice president of SGRI North America Inc. His research and development interests lie in various sensor networking, energy harvesting, and integrated circuit design in the areas of communications, computing, commercial electronics, cyber security, SoC and FPGA. He is also interested in the smart equipment and system designs with applications in smart grid such as smart substation and smart T&D, and internet of things (IoT) such as smart home, smart building, and smart city.

Dr. Jian Zhang, Founder and CEO, GridX.

Jian Zhang is founder and CEO of GridX, a provider of Big Data billing and analytics solutions for to streamline the back office and analytics operations for smart grid. Previously, Jian had spent more than a decade developing and delivering large scale billing and settlement technologies for telecom carriers and digital media companies. Prior to founding GridX, Jian was founder and CEO of Tradescape, a financial clearing and analytics software provider for digital media applications. In that capacity, Jian led the technology startup from inception through profitability. Prior to Tradescape, Jian headed product management for new product group at Portal Software and was responsible for a line of billing products for cable operators, online media companies and telecom carriers. Portal Software was acquired by Oracle for $220 million and became Oracle Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) product offering for telecom carriers. An early pioneer of financial back-office technology for cloud services, Jian was the Principal Investigator of a NIST-funded research project in 2003 to develop the financial accounting technology for cloud/grid computing resources.

Jian holds a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA degree from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Dr. Cazalet has over forty years of electric power experience as an executive, board member, consultant, and entrepreneur. In 2007 Dr Cazalet co-founded MegaWatt Storage Farms. MegaWatt deploys and manages grid-scale electricity storage farms for multiple applications in including integration of intermittent wind and solar generation.
Dr Cazalet was appointed by California Governor Schwarzenegger in 2004 to a three-year term as a member of the five-person Board of Governors of the CAISO. The CAISO is charged with safe and reliable real-time operation and planning of the high voltage transmission system in California.

Dr. Cazalet founded APX in 1996 and served for many years as CEO. Dr. Cazalet conceived the business opportunity, and raised $66 million in investment capital in three rounds. APX provides independent transaction services for electric power and environmental registries. Dr. Cazalet founded Decision Focus, Inc. (DFI) in 1976 and led DFI to become a leading firm in energy and electric power market modeling and decision analysis consulting. Previously at SRI International he was an early member of the pioneering Decision Analysis Group at SRI International. With both companies, and also as an independent consultant, Dr. Cazalet has participated in and led high-level consulting and decision analysis engagements for several of the world’s largest corporations and many government agencies.

Dr. Cazalet holds a PhD from Stanford University focused on economics, decision analysis and power system planning and degrees in engineering from the University of Washington.

Dr. Charles Wells, Center of Excellence Engineer, OSIsoft, Inc.

Dr. Wells helps OSIsoft customers maximize value from their software while assisting with the development of new features and functions in OSIsoft products. With over 30 years experience in real-time control and monitoring, Dr. Wells published over 50 technical papers, awarded nine US Patents, and co-authored two textbooks.

Dr. Wells originated the large scale distributed generation applications with Detroit Edison using the DEW software developed at EPRI, designed Phasor applications with Entergy, and compliance monitoring systems with California Independent System Operator. He developed and patented new technology in detecting power grid stability in real time and systems for improving efficiency of pulverized coal fired boilers. He developed carbon efficiency reduction programs using United Nations approved methods. He has also applied innovative OSIsoft technology to Pacific Ocean Environmental measurement systems, transformer condition monitoring systems, on-line continuous flight recording systems and large scale traffic problem forecasting solutions.

At Systems Control, Inc Dr. Wells was a leading developer of large scale state estimators and worked for many years in the field of sparse matrix inversion techniques. Dr. Wells participated in the development and use of dynamic Kalman filters for real time grid fault detection.

Dr. Wells received his BS in Chemical Engineering at Vanderbilt University; and a MS in Chemical Engineering majoring in Polymer science and PhD in Electrical Engineering under Prof. John Zaborszky at Washington University specializing in modern control theory and large dynamic electrical power systems. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Chemical Engineering and Control Systems.